Artificial intelligence unicorn Anthropic has once again fallen into a copyright litigation quagmire. On January 30, 2026, a consortium of publishers led by Concord Music Group and Universal Music Group formally filed a lawsuit, accusing Anthropic of large-scale "flagrant piracy."

Key Accusations: A Business Empire Built on "Pirated" Content

The publishers used extremely harsh language in their complaint, pointing out that behind Anthropic's so-called "AI safety and research company" image, there were illegal downloads of copyrighted works:

Scope of Infringement: It is suspected that over 20,000 songs, including sheet music and lyrics, were obtained and used without authorization.

Means of Acquisition: The prosecution claims that Anthropic obtained training data through pirated channels such as illegal torrent downloads.

High Compensation Demand: The amount of compensation requested in this lawsuit may exceed $3 billion (approximately RMB 21 billion), which could set a new record for the highest copyright case in U.S. history outside of class-action lawsuits.

Legal Prospects: Pirated Pathways Become the Key Point

This case was submitted by the same legal team from the previous "Bartz v. Anthropic" lawsuit. In that earlier case, although Judge William Alsup had stated that using copyrighted content to train models might be legal, he clearly pointed out that if the data source involved piracy, it would not be legally protected:

Historical Cost: In a previous settlement, Anthropic had already paid $1.5 billion in damages.

New Offensive After Being Blocked: Due to previous attempts to add new charges in the old case being rejected by the court, the publishers decided to file this new lawsuit separately and listed the company's CEO and co-founders as co-defendants.

Industry Impact

At present, the valuation of Anthropic has reached $183 billion, but the company has not made a public response to this $3 billion "sky-high" claim. The outcome of this case will directly define the boundaries for AI companies when using copyrighted works, especially the legality of "data acquisition methods" will become the core legal focus in the future.